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Monday, December 31, 2007

Fast Day 30 December 28, 2007 {Iceman Hickey}

Iceman Hickey

There is a cadence and a beat
The foot goes up, the foot goes down.
The foot up, the foot down
Leg up, leg down:
Racing to a chevron!
Racing to a curb!
Anxiety to proceed is
balling up your feet!
Linear procession:
Motion, motion, like a dada
Like a master of unknown legs
Cracker jack of winter!!
Goosesteps in my heart!
Drummers on the street!

I pause and look and see the street.
My heart beats fast, my heart beats slow.
amphetamine recessional depleting...
The pulse abates, the tide is down...down...
Sudden: red light! green light!
Shimmering in motion!
Running for your life!
Spider master bojangles
stepping to a cakewalk war!
Eight-legged beltway drummer!
Like Hickey and the ice man
running to Harry Hope’s bar
leaving life’s cadaver behind,
like a painted whore.
Drink up boys and girls
from the mason jars...
crystal jars of wretchedness!
I know your pain...and more!


Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Fast Day 29 December 21, 2007 {Creation Tale}

Creation Tale


Notes on the poem:
1)Yggdrasil is the great tree from Norse Mythology, Mazdah is light and fire from the Persian.
2)"Kukeon" is a drink or food of ancient Greece which Demeter is mentioned to have drunk while in exile here or there. Heracleitus asserts that the Universe is layered just as is the kukeon which segregates when not stirred.It has been likened to a fondue. Fondue has been attested to have come from Vaudois, Switzerland in testimony from 70 or 80 years ago, before the dish's fame spread.



Demeter, great Mother in Olympus’ kitchen:
the great and continuous stirrer at the stove,
whose wood is Yggdrasil
whose fire is Mazdah.
Great dame of the world falls asleep and ceases the endless
Whirlpool of her wooden spoon which comes to rest
like Noah’s ark forgotten
upon a snowy mount.
The Kukeon on the stove begins slowly to separate,
Slowly at first, then more rapidly it layers;
kukeon like Vaudois fondue,
a dish from heaven:
Dionysos good red wine and Demeter’s own barley,
mixed with divinely grated cheese , white cheese,
made from the milk of a lionness;
a cheese whole and unbroken and
eternal as the albined Moon.

As she slept the fondue spread wide;
From Demeter’s pot spilled out the Earth
the mountains and the sea;
and the inhabitants thereof.
Out spilled the four rivers of Eden and
Its garden filled with cautionary blooms:
the poppies first,
whose blood gives dreams.
Then the lilacs and lavender and roses
Lastly fell the marigolds and lowly vetch
which actually tricked
our mother Eve to sin.
From the bottom of Demeter’s kettle came
Weighty the sandals of beauty, sandals of freedom,
great running sandals far ,
filled with thee outstanding!

(Homer wished for 2 voices to sing
of thee!)





Kore, or Persephone - the daughter of Demeter, sitting as Queen with Hades, king of the underworld.
Note that the symbols are associated with life and growth. Also note how much the chair upon which they sit resembles Egyptian chairs. This one reminds me of Tutankhamun's chair.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Fast Day 28 December 14, 2007 {Susan's Christmas Tree}


Susan's Christmas Tree

Susan's Tree, enwrapped in needles' mystery;
starry visions shining in the skies;
gifting-time, either honey or the bee;
hope-weaver of our lives!

Druid sylvan, motionless in prayer;
with what eyes solstice now observing;
on mountain tops, once and forever
which ancient feasts partaking?

Susan's Christmas Home, filled to overflow
with good food, wine, and sweets embroidered;
weaver of delight our gifts bestow!
All our fears occluded!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Note on December 7, 2007

At this time, I suppose one might say something about the progress to peace.

The plans for Iraq envisage a long term presence there.
This will be a source of constant friction.

It seems almost as if we must absolutely crave the continued debasement and destruction of various peoples, such as that for which the Palestinian situation since 1948 provides a template and paradigm.

Fast Day 27 December 7, 2007 {The Wedding}

The Wedding

She came to me with bed clothes
and bed coverings that were new.
our bodies were new and so our love.
our dowry was new things and old,
some good, some maybe not.

Bed coverings that are new
speak of the newly wed;
speak of the newly born;
speak of those gone away;
and speak of those who are free
from this slavery.

The coverings are like eye lids
anointed in egypt's desert.
the coverings are your lips.
take your dowered things along; take
the golden earrings.

Reflections in a gilded mirror,
burnished and cuprous multiply our number;
we are two, then three, then more.
we dance holding the mirrors of
marital increase.

She comes to me all new;
new as the bed coverings,
sewn with pictures of star and moon;
sun and birds, arrows and beast.
Her breast is a new pillow with colored beads!

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Fast Day 26 November 30, 2007 {A Winter Storm At The Cenotaph}

A Winter Storm At The Cenotaph

I stand waiting within the antechamber
of the Spirits, buffeted by the echoes
of the living.
I touch the marble classic columns
with my tears; the cold stone sucks
my water in.
We fear the storm of those voices,
an unsought handsel clamorous to reward
our departure.
Rain does not wet us, nor does
the ice nor snow of atheistic fury make
us shiver.
We are beyond all that; we only fear
the echoes because we lived our lives
in fear
and like a dirty sin, this habit we trail
along behind us like Marley's chests
of empty gold.
When I thought I could stand no more
and sought the oblivion of the marble's
now succulent veins -
an eternity of seeking past- yet my Love
was sudden upon the horizon where used to be
the Moon,
and I broke free from my renown prison
and my voice burst mantic from my breast and I
was reborn!